Sakura's Strength
by Haripoons
Summary: Sakura is sick of watching the female shinobi of her generation stay weak while the men become strong and decides that something needs to change. This time around, the women will become strong. Time travel. No pairings yet.


There is a small thatched hut. Inside of the hut sits a young woman, eighteen or nineteen years old, staring at a worn scroll, fraying at the edges, laid out on a creaky wooden table. The girl runs a tired hand through her tangled pink hair and sighs. She's spent every second of her day for months on end developing this final weapon, but now that she's finally succeeded in its creation, she isn't sure that she should use it.

Sakura grits her teeth, summoning the memories that made her remember why she wanted to create a time travel apparatus in the first place. Why she'd been so enraged at the choices of her friends and mentors. Images flit through her mind, her friends, the girls, Hinata, Ino, Tenten, laughing and gazing dreamily at the boys: Naruto and Sasuke. Neji and Kiba. For them, in the beginning, it had always been about the boys. And later, when they could have been snapped out of it, when they could have been given the chance to become strong, the teachers failed.

"It's just a childish crush," the instructors had said, "Harmless, really. No sense interrupting the children's dreams."

Sakura snarls. How wrong they'd been, those stupid instructors. The children needed to know, and know early, that there was no place for childish fancies in the hard life of a shinobi. They'd allowed the girls in the academy to become so weak and lovesick, disgustingly so, that when they finally realized how important it was to become strong, it was already too late.

Sakura remembered the academy classes, co-ed for ninja history and most exercises, but when it came down to extra practice with kunais or advanced sparring techniques, the girls were lead away for flower arranging while the boys honed their strength and power. And the part that disgusts her, that angers her, is that it could have changed! The academy wasn't particularly sexist, if a girl felt very strongly they could skip flower arranging and do strength training exercises instead, but she and the rest of the girls were too young, too foolish to realize the skills they could hone, the benefits they could reap, from becoming as strong as the boys early on.

Sakura remembers herself and Ino fighting in the preliminary stage of the chunin exam. They'd both been so weak, so easy to take down. Had they made it to the finals they would have been skewered. Meanwhile, the worst of the academy: Shikimaru, Choji, Kiba, and Naruto, were all incredibly strong from their training. Sakura remembers Kakashi, pushing her slightly to become stronger and train harder, but never truly pressing, not like he had with Naruto and Sasuke. People saw the weakness of the female shinobi and thought it natural. They were women, there was no need for them to become as strong as their male counterparts.

And even after Sakura had finally buckled down and trained, there was no chance of her catching up to the boys, no chance for any of the girls. They were left in the dust as the men ran around pursuing their own important missions and settling personal vendettas. The girls were left at home like housewives watching their husbands leave for war, and maybe if they were civilians that would be natural, but Sakura and the other girls WERE FREAKING SHINOBI, not weak little girls to be babied and protected!

And the part that really rankles Sakura was how the book smarts never seemed to matter. Sure, it was important to be knowledgeable in order to become a medic nin, but overall, being a shinobi was all about strength, chakra amount, strategy, and jutsus. It didn't matter how smart she was. The academy had pretended that memorizing ninja history was key to becoming a successful shinobi, but frankly, it wasn't, and the boys who neglected homework to do pushups and practice jutsus, were giving themselves a huge head start over the girls who spent hours studying for their tests.

And now, Sakura sits inside a hut on the outskirts of a burning Konohagakure. In her heart, she knows that if she doesn't go back and try to save Konoha, she'll never forgive herself. Sakura wants to save Konoha, it's her village and her home and one of her most important things, but even more than that, even more than her desire to save her home, she wants the females to be acknowledged. She wants herself, Ino, Tenten, and Hinata, to be on par with the boys, whether or not those boys have insanely powerful kekkai genkais or host demons in their bodies.

Sakura grits her teeth and steels her resolve. She opens eyes, green irises bright and strong. Sakura takes a kunai from her pouch and pushes it into her hand, barely reacting as the cool metal digs into her skin, causing red droplets of blood to leak down her fingers, onto the scroll. She counts the drops of blood carefully and then forms the correct handseals, channeling chakra into the scroll. By her calculations the time travel will become effective in three, two, one . . .

Sakura wakes up with a jolt, green eyes open and alert. She looks down at her unusually small hand and runs into the kitchen to stare at the small calendar her parents have hung up on the wall. The date means she's four. Just like she'd planned in her initial calculations. A wide grin splits Sakura's face and she barely resists the urge to hop around the kitchen shouting happily. It worked! She's back! And this time around, her grin becomes more feral, the boys had better watch out.

Sakura notices the ribbon on her bedside table, hmmm, she and Ino must have already become friends then. Perfect, that makes her plan easier. Sakura ties up her hair with said ribbon and heads downstairs. Her parents are both awake and in the kitchen by now. Her mother is frying up breakfast while her father sips coffee and reads the newspaper. Sakura finds herself tearing up. It's been so long since she's last seen her parents. They'd been killed by a rogue ninja infiltrating Konoha years earlier. It was then that Sakura had finally, fully realized how little her silly childhood crushes and fights mattered in the face of real problems.

Sakura eats a quick breakfast with her parents, trying her best to appear an immature four year old, and then heads out to the meadow where the rest of the girls in the village usually meet. It's time to put her plan into action. Ino is already there when Sakura arrives, and looks confused when the supposedly shy girl drags her off to the Hyuuga compound, saying that she needs to find someone there. Sakura knocks on the door and politely tells an attendant that she would like to speak to Hiashi and Hyuuga Hinata if they would be so kind as to spare them a moment of time.

Hiashi and Hinata appear moments later, the former looking slightly disgruntled and suspicious as he gazes down at Sakura and Ino with blank white eyes. Ino is very nervous and keeps glancing at Sakura, silently asking what the hell her friend is doing.

"Hyuuga-san," Sakura begins composedly, "We're sorry to disturb you, but Ino and I were wondering if perhaps we could borrow Hinata for the day."

Hiashi looks at the audacious girl before him, bemused. She doesn't even belong to a ninja clan and yet she has the audacity to ask to spend time with its future heir? He feels inclined to refuse but hesitates when he sees Hinata watching the two girls with longing out of the corner of his eye. It would be good for her to start forming helpful connections now and learn to interact more comfortably with her peers, even if those peers are an overly confident civilian girl and a young female from the Yamanaka clan.

"I will allow it, for today," Hiashi decides, "But I had better not hear of anything untoward happening."

"Of course not, Hyuuga-san," Sakura responds assuredly, before she takes Hinata by the hand and strolls calmly out of the compound. Ino follows, looking shell-shocked.

Before her blond friend can say something along the lines of "What the heck were you thinking, Sakura?" The pink haired girl leads her two friends over to the academy where the five-year olds are getting out from their half day of class. Sakura finds Tenten easily, picking out her cute, black buns amidst the crowd of students, and pulls her aside.

"Hello Tenten-san," she begins, "My name is Sakura and I would like to become friends with you. Will you come play with us?"

Tenten flounders for a moment, startled by Sakura's abruptness, but eventually agrees. There are a distinct lack of girls in the academy with her, and the ones that are there appear to be blithering idiots that only care about boys and their clothes. She'd like to try hanging out with these younger girls. They, at least, seem to have good heads on their shoulders.

Sakura leads her troop of girls to an empty clearing, ringed by trees, and takes a deep breath. This moment is crucial. She needs to get the other girls to understand her plan, and agree to it or all of her hard work goes down the drain.

"Ino-chan, Hinata-san, Tenten-san," Sakura says, looking them in the eyes seriously, "There is a serious problem with this village. I know you all want to be ninja, as do I, and we are likely to be some of the only truly strong and successful female shinobi of our generation in Konoha."

The girls are looking at her now, confused. Ino looks even more startled at the fact that meek little Sakura has become so commanding overnight.

"If our lives continue the way they are, if we don't break the mold," Sakura continues, "The boys, your supposed 'equals' will become much stronger than you. They will train more while you do 'girly' things like learning about flowers and reading romantic stories that supposedly help you become better ninja but are utterly useless in the real world."

Sakura continues, desperately, "We need to become strong! We need to become true shinobi, not the backup or the weaklings that are protected. And in order to do this, we need to start training now!"

Ino looks, if anything, more confused, while Hinata watches Sakura timidly. Tenten, on the other hand, looks contemplative, as though realizing the truth in Sakura's words and wondering just how right she is.

"I'm in." Tenten finally decides, "The boys in my class are starting to pull ahead while all of the girls are pulled aside for utterly idiotic things like sewing and flower arranging that have nothing to do with being a shinobi." She draws herself up to her full height (which isn't much seeing as she's only five), and looks Sakura right in the eyes, "I want to become strong."

Hinata voices her agreement with a shy whisper, and feeling the pressure not to be one-upped by her peers, Ino reluctantly agrees as well. Sakura lets out a sigh of relief. Thank god. From then on, the girls meet up every day after lunch, when Tenten is let out of the academy. Sakura starts the girls off on basic chakra building and control exercises and then switches to taijutsu and strength training. Ino seems reluctant at first to get her hands dirty or sweat, but Sakura sneaks her into the Uchiha compound to watch the Sasuke already learning complicated katas for taijutsu, and the pretty blond quickly decides to work harder. Hiashi had also proved a problem at first, but after Hinata expressed a strong desire to train with the other girls, showing him her improved chakra control from only one afternoon of hard work, he relented warily. It was only a half day after all.

Guided by Sakura, the girls gradually start building up muscle and chakra reserves, as well as an increased stamina. Eventually, Sakura, Ino, and Hinata entered the academy, and she cautioned them to hide their developing skills or risk being moved up too far, too fast. Sakura had seen what being recognized early had done to people like Kakashi and Itachi, and didn't want that happening to the girls. Even Sasuke had only been recognized as Rookie of the Year, and that had inflated his head enough for him to think he was skilled enough to take on a Jonin single-handedly.

The girls continue improving, and Sakura eventually teaches them tree and water walking exercises, as well as a few basic jutsus like kawarimi and bunshin that were taught in the academy years ahead of time. The Uchiha massacre happens as expected, and Sakura is sad to see Sasuke walking into the academy with red-rimmed eyes, but knows that if she'd tried to interfere, she only would have made the situation worse, not knowing enough about internal clan politics to properly intervene in the Uchiha's attempted coup.

When Tenten graduates, with multiple jutsus and genjutsus under her belt, courtesy of one pink haired shinobi-in-training, Sakura advises her to go all out and really impress her jonin sensei. Gai is ecstatic to have such a hardworking and "youthful" student, and Sakura knows he can be counted on to give Tenten proper training.

The next year, Sakura and the rest of the girls graduate, and are placed into the same groups as in the first timeline. Sakura again tells her friends it will be in their best interest to really impress their senseis. She meets with little resistance, because, by now, Ino and Hinata have realized that Sakura is rarely wrong and following her advice is always a good idea.

Hinata has become less timid with Sakura's constant encouragement, and does not have a crush on any boys this time around. Sakura knows she'll work well with Kurenai and will be treated fairly. Ino still has a minor crush on Sasuke, but it's nowhere near strong enough to interfere with her training or turn her into the pushy, bossy genin that she was in the original timeline. Unfortunately, Ino has a lazy sensei and a semi-sexist Shikamaru on her team. Sakura knows that Ino will really need to push if she actually wants the training to improve and encourages her to do so.

Teammates taken care of, Sakura thinks of herself, wondering what she can possibly do to get Kakashi-sensei to take notice of her. She decides to team up with Naruto to fight her sensei during the bell test, since Sasuke will refuse to work with her anyway being the solitary kid he is, and show her old sensei what she is capable of. Sakura walks into her room, once home, and cuts her silky magenta hair. She doesn't just cut it into a bob as she had it in her original timeline, but cuts it genuinely "boy short" so that she doesn't even need to tie it back with a headband and it won't come close to getting in her face. The clothes she lays out for the next day aren't her typical dress, but instead a comfortable t-shirt and shorts. She will NOT appear weak tomorrow!

The next day, Kakashi walks into the classroom, three hours late, as usual, with the chalk eraser falling on his head, and snaps out the usual insults at herself, Naruto, and Sasuke. The three make their way up to the roof where they give their speeches about their hopes and dreams, and this time, Sakura is ready not to be an annoying little fangirl twit.

"My name is Sakura. My hobbies are training and reading. I like good teachers. I dislike teachers who favor certain students. My dream is to become a shinobi who is central to the security of Konohagakure."

She can feel Kakashi watching her contemplatively, wondering at her maturity, but she needs to impress him right from the get go or he won't put enough effort into training her. As Kakashi explains the bell test and they begin, Sakura pulls Naruto and Sasuke aside and tells them it would be beneficial to work together. Sasuke, predictably, refuses, wanting to test his skills alone, but Naruto gets a goofy smile on his face, happy that his crush wants to fight with him.

Sasuke takes a crack at Kakashi and is, predictably, defeated. Then, it's Sakura and Naruto's turn. Sakura tells Naruto in quiet tones to create multiple kage bunshin, have them henge into copies of both him and herself, and set them to hiding amongst the trees. She smirks inwardly. Let the games begin.


End file.
